About Dave Smith:

Dave Smith is a name that any electronic music enthusiast has probably heard at least once. That makes sense, considering that he's been called the "Father of MIDI." When he wasn't working on the MIDI standard itself, he was designing keyboards and synthesizers, and the result is the Dave Smith Instruments lineup you see right here. Over 35 years of experience have gone into these products, and the results speak for themselves when you hear them in action.

If you want to jump right in with an electronic instrument that's quick to learn and a lot of fun, take a look at the Mopho Keyboard Synth. It's small enough to carry along to anyplace you want to play, and it's got electronics under the hood pulled straight from its bigger cousin, the Prophet '08. By compressing the Prophet's power into a compact, accessible, synth, Dave Smith has created the perfect model for hobbyists and casual players.

When one voice isn't enough but you still want that inviting ease of use, check out the Mopho x4. This synth takes everything great about the Mopho and turns it up a notch with four times the polyphony. There's also a wider range of keys, and it's got built-in expandability with support for interconnection with other Dave Smith Instruments synths. Plug in a Prophet, Tetra or Mopho and they'll work together to give you even more versatility.

For the ultimate professional, the nod has to go to the Prophet 12. It's available with a built-in 61-key keyboard or as a standalone synth module, and each of its 12 voices has four distinct oscillators. The panel layout is one of the best things about the Prophet 12; it uses dedicated physical controls for all of the usual functions, so you won't need to navigate a ton of menus to get what you want out of it.

Taking a look at all of Dave Smith Instruments' synthesizers as well as the Tempest drum machine, it's easy enough to see the kind of results that come from an electrical engineer involved in the creation of MIDI and synths as we know them today. With these electronic instruments, there's really no limit on what you can do musically.